Sunday, 20 February 2011

Losing ground

The week ahead sees the six sides above us play on Tuesday and we face the prospect of going to Notts County on Friday knowing that a win there still might not be enough to get back into the play-off places.

Yesterday's result will stand out at the end of the season as the one where we lost the chance to stay in the hunt for the automatic places. It's not the end of the world and we are still in contention with our games in hand for a play-off finish, although I can still see us ending up short.

There is a lot of negativity around about the fact that it was "typical Charlton" yesterday, in that we let ourselves down in front of 24,000 home fans. We shouldn't beat ourselves up over it. The fact is we managed to pull that number in and it seemed to me like many were genuine first-timers for whom the result may not have been the be-all and end-all. The size of the stadium and the gate may have been enough to make more of an imprint on the minds and memories than the result. It certainly wasn't the memory of a winning performance that I think of when I first fell for Charlton. The Valley, our locality and our supporters were just as compelling as the quality of the football.

I hope Messrs Slater and Jimenez are encouraged to get back on the horse and repeat the feat in the not too distant future. Wouldn't it be great to finish the season with another full-house against the Monkey-Hangers?

You are right Dave and thinking back I can't remember much about my first ever match at The Valley - game wise that is. I definitely don't remember the result or the opposition. What I do remember is the size of the place, the crowd and the general colour and noise. I wanted to come again. Hopefully a few more will have made that decision too.

CA - No, personally I don't mind although I understand why many ST holders do. The club needs to monitor this or they risk shooting themselves in the foot. I think the £50 reduction is another initiative which is on the money (forgive the pun), even if I disagree with the 4th April deadline.

Not quite relevant to this post (though I should state first up that you make a good point and we shouldn't focus too much on the negatives, especially with games coming thick and fast and the chance to go another run always just a game away), but I am a long-time Addick exiled in Nottingham going to the Notts County away game, wondering if you know how I can meet up with fellow Addicks beforehand? I read many of the blogs but haven't yet seen a declaration of someone who is going, so thought I'd turn to someone who seems to have his finger on the pulse!I do also run a city centre hotel with a couple of bars and I'm sure some discounted drinks could be arranged...Yours in anticipation,Martin

There was a general "hum" throughout the game (and I ain't talking about some of our passing...), of the sort you get at panto (again I'm not talking about our passing). The singing wasn't as loud as you'd expect from such a large crowd either. In short there were a lot of first timers there Dave.

Most people I take to the Valley for the first time like the atmosphere becuase they don't feel threatened and have nice day out. Saturday was no exception. If we get 10% of that 10,000 to come back we have done very well out of it.

when we take a few boys from our football team I like to ask them afterwards who played well and why - get them to think about what they had seen and learn from it. May be drop in to the next training session (one touch passing was my theme Saturday morning after the Arsenal v Barcelona game).

It was difficult to find a lot of good play examples on Saturday! but Carl Jenkins was the best player for most, with Nathan coming second. Next trainign session will be about crossing I think!